Today's water heaters are simple appliances without any intelligence. They are always on and try to maintain the water temperature constant to a pre-set value at all times. This consumes a lot of energy. However the hot water is not used for a large part of the day or week. For example hot water is not required when people are sleeping or are at work or when they go to vacation. In order to save energy, a solution is required to turn the water heater off when hot water is not needed and turn the water heater on at the right time to heat the water and have it ready when hot water is needed. One way to solve this problem is to have a programmable Thermostat for water heater that can turn the water heater on/off at pre-configured times. Such a solution, although better than the always-on water heaters, is not ideal, since the hot water usage pattern may change over time that would require re-programming of the timer. For example, hot water usage during the workdays of the week is different from the weekends and holidays. Also, the hot water usage during summer is less than the usage during winter since people usually take cold showers and the water is also normally warm.
The water heater Thermostat's usually have Vacation setting that keeps the water at a lower temperature in order to save energy. However in most cases the users may forget to set the water heater thermostat to the Vacation setting before going on vacation. Therefore, the ability to remotely control and monitor the water heater temperature via devices such as smart phones or computers will further increase the efficiency of the water heater by conserving energy.
In general an intelligent water heater will be one of the components of intelligent homes, in which the devices, appliances and sensors can communicate with each other and the user to provide intelligent, dynamic and optimal settings that saves time and energy for the user and allow users better control and monitoring.